Time to stop the focus on buying coffees and start focusing on remittance!

[moni3z]

I use Bitcoin for remmittance paying overseas developers. I usually pay into localbitcoins, find somebody local and then enter the worker's details so they are paid directly without ever knowing anything about Bitcoin (because too confusing to explain it to them). This works well for Kenya and other African countries because can just enter their phone number and they are paid directly without needing any other information.

The key is abstracting all the complexity of bitcoin away for people. Trying to explain to grandma back in the home country how to log in somewhere and trade coins with her phone isn't going to happen.

[brg444]

I use Bitcoin for remmittance paying overseas developers. I usually pay into localbitcoins, find somebody local and then enter the worker's details so they are paid directly without ever knowing anything about Bitcoin (because too confusing to explain it to them). This works well for Kenya and other African countries because can just enter their phone number and they are paid directly without needing any other information.

The key is abstracting all the complexity of bitcoin away for people. Trying to explain to grandma back in the home country how to log in somewhere and trade coins with her phone isn't going to happen.

+1

I also use Bitcoin for remittances. It works great indeed. In my case I am able to send to the recipient's bank account for very close to nothing.

If you haven't you may want to look into www.goabra.com they are doing precisely what you suggest at the end.

[Guido]

I use Bitcoin for remmittance paying overseas developers. I usually pay into localbitcoins, find somebody local and then enter the worker's details so they are paid directly without ever knowing anything about Bitcoin (because too confusing to explain it to them). This works well for Kenya and other African countries because can just enter their phone number and they are paid directly without needing any other information.

The key is abstracting all the complexity of bitcoin away for people. Trying to explain to grandma back in the home country how to log in somewhere and trade coins with her phone isn't going to happen.

agree
that's interesting. so avoids street changers like mentioned earlier
having never used localbitcoins are you able to explain more the process you mentioned
as seems pretty seamless

I'm guessing if you use someone with high rating you're pretty safe.
how is the money sent on, what if they don't have bank acocunt

thanks

[Guido]

I use Bitcoin for remmittance paying overseas developers. I usually pay into localbitcoins, find somebody local and then enter the worker's details so they are paid directly without ever knowing anything about Bitcoin (because too confusing to explain it to them). This works well for Kenya and other African countries because can just enter their phone number and they are paid directly without needing any other information.

The key is abstracting all the complexity of bitcoin away for people. Trying to explain to grandma back in the home country how to log in somewhere and trade coins with her phone isn't going to happen.

+1

I also use Bitcoin for remittances. It works great indeed. In my case I am able to send to the recipient's bank account for very close to nothing.

If you haven't you may want to look into www.goabra.com they are doing precisely what you suggest at the end.

I remember seeing about these guys years ago. The site looks great and simple, the name is terrible though
do they have any market penetration? are people using them

[Guido]

couple of very recent articles on coindesk are very relevant bearing in mind what we have discussed

http://www.coindesk.com/investment-bank-axa-eyeing-bitcoin-for-remittance-market/

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-to-cash-app-abra-raises-12-million-series-a/

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Many people aren't spending Bitcoin just because there aren't enough places they like which accept it; they're unwilling to go out of their way to patronize places that accept Bitcoin for the fact that they do so. This needs to change. Bitcoiners are being selfish.

I actually have been paid in Bitcoin for at least a year now, though, so this logic has gotten easier for me. If you don't accept Bitcoin, patronizing you is less convenient for me. I have to go find a Bitcoin ATM or exchanger, somewhere. That's annoying, and I end up despising places that only take fiat.

[CIYAM]

I actually have been paid in Bitcoin for at least a year now, though, so this logic has gotten easier for me.

You are probably one of only a handful of people who get paid in Bitcoin (assuming the amount you are paid is more than just a couple of coffees per month).

Expecting everyone to accept BTC as a payment option just because you are paid in BTC when the merchant might only get one such BTC payment per month (or per year) is a little hopeful IMO (although there are actually quite a lot of merchants accepting payments in BTC at the moment).

When there are tens of thousands of people being paid their wages in BTC I'd expect to see a lot more merchants providing a BTC payment option but for the most part I think a lot of merchants have only said "we accept BTC" for the sake of some publicity (rather than any significant amount of sales).

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

I actually have been paid in Bitcoin for at least a year now, though, so this logic has gotten easier for me.

You are probably one of only a handful of people who get paid in Bitcoin (assuming the amount you are paid is more than just a couple of coffees per month).

Expecting everyone to accept BTC as a payment option just because you are paid in BTC when the merchant might only get one such BTC payment per month (or per year) is a little hopeful IMO (although there are actually quite a lot of merchants accepting payments in BTC at the moment).

When there are tens of thousands of people being paid their wages in BTC I'd expect to see a lot more merchants providing a BTC payment option but for the most part I think a lot of merchants have only said "we accept BTC" for the sake of some publicity (rather than any significant amount of sales).

I receive 100% of my income in BTC, which is (obviously) a large enough amount for me to survive. Unfortunately, I am forced to convert to fiat when not back at my home base in Vancouver, where there is a large enough concentration of Bitcoin merchants for me to be picky. Converting to fiat requires adjusting my travel route before visiting a place, which is annoying and more effort than should be necessary IMHO.

You're right about the publicity, though. In Vancouver we go out of our way to bring them that, too, and have "a guy" in the local newspaper. However, we all need to try harder to patronize Bitcoin venues. The customers die out once their media frenzy ends; back in the early days, I held all of our Meet Ups at Bitcoin venues, but now there are "Bitcoin centers" everywhere and people wanna Meet Up there, instead. It severely damaged my ability to spread and maintain Bitcoin adoption.

[Q7]

I think the main barrier here towards wide-scale remittance is having over the counter exchanger's shop (actual physical shop in a building) being set up where you can just pops right in and exchange from bitcoin to cash without going through all the crappy procedure. Same goes for atm machine where not only it allows you to buy bitcoin but also sells your bitcoin for cash. Let's accept the ultimate fact here, nobody likes giving away private confidential information and as far as that goes, for me even providing contact telephone number is already considered too much.

[Soros Shorts]

Well it seems some people want to turn Bitcoin into an elitist asset that only rich people would use anyway. I think thats a guaranteed failure. We NEED to both take care of small transactions and huge transactions too. Cash going away is a reality in the following years and we need a solid system to counteract the e-fiat closed source crypto that the gov will drop on us.

Since when was remitting $500 or $1000 a month to folks back home in a third-world country considered elitist?

In fact, buying $5 lattes with your smartphone is a first world phenomena that might actually rank higher than remittances on the elitist scale.

[maokoto]

I answered in other topic favoring Bitcoin being used to make small payments and micropayments. I think that it is important to defend this, as it has a lot of monetizing potential for blogs, music, and earning a life by the payment bits of many people.

But I agree that remittance is a very important and not explored area. I have relatives abroad and it would be great to have methods por remmitance involving bitcoin for people who do not know much about using it.

[brg444]

I answered in other topic favoring Bitcoin being used to make small payments and micropayments. I think that it is important to defend this, as it has a lot of monetizing potential for blogs, music, and earning a life by the payment bits of many people.

Bitcoin enables all of those things to happen but they don't necessarily have to each individually be settled on the Bitcoin blockchain. That would be an enormous waste of resources.